9781422288436

America’s obesity epidemic is a strange paradox , because although America is now the heaviest nation on earth, it is also one of the most image conscious. At the same time that Americans are suffering from ballooning weight, they are bombarded by images telling them to be impossibly beauti- ful and impossibly thin. Think about the people you see on television, in movies, and splashed on the covers of magazines. How many real-life people do you know who actually look like this? Probably no one. And yet, how much do you, your friends, or your family members want to look like this? Probably a lot. Each year Americans spend billions of their hard-earned dol- lars not trying to get healthy, but trying to look like the images in magazines.

12 / Exercise for Fitness & Weight Loss